Hanna Barbara cartoons voices..and animation

[Peter Gray]

Its amazing the memorable voices they used in the cartoons..so much fun to do an impression of..I think the voices must have been the best thing in these cartoons..

What is good they all have very distinct unusual voices..

Though Chuck Jones sarcastically called these cartoons Radio plays because of the limited animation..he is half right as the voices would work great on the radio..

The early cartoons late 50's-63 is whwn they were at there best in animation..
But I think the voices in The Wacky Races..Scooby Doo..still bring the cartoon to life despite a lowering of the animation and is very hard not to still like..

So voices are very important in cartoons..
Ironically Hanna Barbara the king of cartoon voices started with silent stars Tom and Jerry!!!!

Been watching loads of Hanna Barbara cartoons on youtube.loving Augie Doggie..Yogi Bear..Hardy Har Har..Wally Gator..Hokey Wolf..Ricochet Rabbit..Punkin Puss and Mush Mouse..Loop de loop the wolf..Secret Squirrel..Touche Turtle..Huckleberry Hound..Snagglepuss..

These ones don't work for me.....the animation is too limited for me..there is a fine line..
The Magilla Gorilla Show (1963)
Jonny Quest (1964)
The Peter Potamus Show (1964)
Breezly and Sneezly
Yippee, Yappee and Yahooey
Atom Ant

What works in the early Hanna Barbara is although mostly a talky cartoon.the movement of the head..with diagonal tilts of the head rather than just a nod..the blinks of the one eye then the other....just simple things like this keep it alive..keeping the head moving and showing unusual angles witht the nose..

[ISPYSHHHGUY]

As I was saying to Peter recently, I almost 'made it' as a big-screen animator in the early 90s.....I worked at Speilberg's animation factory in London at the time, but was fed up with the hierarchy involved to progress further.....in frustration, I literally taught myself to animate and showed an 8-second clip of flowing, Disney-style animation to another London company, where the 70-year old animation supervisor started back in the 40s on the vintage TOM &JERRY shorts.....I was delighted when he said call back in a few months, and 'we'll give you a go as an animator.'.......sadly, the film they produced first never done well at the almighty box-office, or my future might have been very different at the time.........

[Kashgar]

Speaking of memorable cartoon voices Arnold Stang who voiced Top Cat died last month aged 91. I recall that he appeared on Blue Peter once, years after the Top Cat show originally aired, and finally solved the conundrum of what the seemingly gobbledegook lyrics in the middle of the title song actually were. 'Close friends get to call him TC. Providing it is with dignity.'
Another animation actor whose voice has remained in my mind since childhood is Paul Frees who voiced Captain Haddock in Herge's Adventures of Tin Tin and provided the booming unforgettable voice-over in the title sequence. Not Hanna Barbera of course but, as Mr Frees told us in stentorian terms after every five minute episode, produced by 'Tele-Hachete and Belvision!'

[NP]

There was a voice artistes strike in Hollywood in the early 1980s(?) and I remember hearing a live report on the radio news from the picket line - in the background, you could hear all the familiar voices shouting slogans, dominated by Fred Flintstone yelling "Whadda we want? More Pay! When do we want it? Now!" In the mind's eye, it was a surreal sight!

[grumpy old man]

Must admit I found it kinda weird when I saw an episode of Dennis the Menace, that he didn’t have some sort of regional accent that I’d always imagined him to have. Instead they’d gone for a generic “squeaky” kids voice. But I guess that’s how seeing or hearing things “in your minds eye” works.

[Peter Gray]

Dastardly had a great voice..and a great cackle..
and Muttleys wheeze laugh..
Also loved the out of breath car in Perils of Penelope Pitstop..splutter..


Another great thing abot Hanna Barbara cartoons was the titles.the music and the fun animation..they were so catchy..all of us could sing them now..


Todays animations could learn a lot from Hanna Barbara
I agree they have never got Dennis the Menace's voice right!
In Bananaman the voices are spot on and great fun..helped by The Goodies.

[Phoenix]

What is good they all have very distinct unusual voices..

I have very fond memories of The Huckleberry Hound Show from about 1959, and the voices, linked to what we might loosely call characterisation, were one of two main reasons for my enjoyment. The second, which cannot be divorced from the first, was the way the traditional Tom and Jerry-type opposition was treated with a degree of irony by Hanna and Barbera in all the three cartoons that comprised the show. Where Tom was largely in control and Jerry was always fortunate to survive by the skin of his teeth, Pixie and Dixie consistently gave Mr Jinx the runaround, much of the humour lying in the contradiction between the cunning plans for successfully catching those pesky meeces that Jinxie shared with the viewer face to face, and their frequent abject failure because he was really rather dim. His vocal delivery, though, was of the method-acting school and the obvious link with Brando suggested that he was very much in control. Yogi Bear, on the other hand, was always telling everybody that he was smarter than the average bear, and within a restricted range of activity he did have some success. However, it's a good job he had a bright sidekick in his little friend Boo Boo, who acted rather like a smart lawyer giving advice to a lumbering criminal. The voices suggested this dichotomy perfectly. It should also be noted, of course, that the words boo-boo and booby imply a foolish or ignorant blunderer. Huckleberry was the one really successful protagonist but with his leisurely movement and his languid southern drawl he seemed to be the very antithesis of a smart, quick-thinking detective from New York, or Los Angeles, Perry Mason for example. Given the above, his successes were all the more laudable because of the quality of the criminals, such as Powerful Pierre, that he set out to outwit and catch. Perhaps we should not have been surprised as we had the example of Dixie and his drawl as a guide plus, of course, the knowledge that Dixie is a well-known nickname for the southern states of the USA.

[Peter Gray]

As you say cleverly the voices went with the character..making the character even more real..

Just watched a Lippy the lion and was very funny when it met a real lion..who couldn't talk like he did or wear clothes..But later in the chase scene the real lion ran up right on two legs chasing him and Hardy Har Har..lo0ve the absurdeness of it..eat your heart out Pluto and Goofy!!

Also you can't help notiicing and smiling at the backgrounds repeating itself..how many tables do you need in a living room.I'm sure they did this on purpose to make us smile rather than just purley a cost cutting procedure!

[Phoenix]

But later in the chase scene the real lion ran up right on two legs chasing him

Yes I like that, Peter. It has that irony that I referred to earlier, the unexpected that startles you but at the same time is really very funny. That kind of situation is bound to work well in cartoons because the animal protagonists shouldn't really be standing on two legs or wearing clothes, but they all do. I blame Rupert Bear's mother myself, but I'm sure that Lew or Kashgar etc will prove for us that there were many of these bipedal animals before Rupert, his family and friends.

[Raven]

I grew up watching Yogi, Huck, and the meeces on endless repeat cycle on the BBC in the 70s, but I don't think the best stuff stopped in '63. My favourite Hanna-Barberas, I think, are Dastardly and Muttley in Their Flying Machines (1969) and Help! It's the Hair Bear Bunch (1971) - if you don't know the latter, Peter, look it up on Youtube; it has one of the great theme tunes.

I also remember being very fond of a seemingly little-remembered one, Josie and the Pussycats in Outer Space (1972) - yes, their intergalactic adventures; the opening titles are on YouTube - and ITV's evening repeat showings of 1962's The Jetsons.

The first couple of series of Scooby-Doo were also a high point.

Quick Draw McGraw, the horse sheriff was in the comics but not repeated on TV when I was a boy, and this is quite a good one from the early days, too, sometimes featuring an amusing dog that's a prototype Muttley.

We should have a thread on Huckleberry Hound's Weekly in the Comics section.

[Jonny Whizz]

As I child I loved Dick Dastardly and Muttley in the Wacky Races, I thought they were very funny.

I agree they have never got Dennis the Menace's voice right!

I agree with this as well - they've not got it right in either of the TV versions, and I wasn't particularly impressed by the voice in the Beano video either.

[Peter Gray]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eNnIbc15 ... 8&index=35

heres the Lippy the lion link to see the two different lions..

Yes I like a lot of different eras of Hanna Barbara as well...hey I watched the Smurfs and the Snorks when I was young.. also the new Popeye..

My hair can look like the hair bear bunch....it get very curly..

I recomend this blog on Hanna Barbara
http://yowpyowp.blogspot.com/
they prefer the 1959-1963 era best..this is where I got those years from..I can see the animation was better in that era...But as you say the magic did carry on..

John K also hated the 80's Hanna Barbara
http://johnkstuff.blogspot.com/2010/02/ ... hanna.html
he makes good points..even though I did like the Happy Days animation as a kid.I love time travel stories..

[Niblet]

Also you can't help notiicing and smiling at the backgrounds repeating itself..how many tables do you need in a living room.I'm sure they did this on purpose to make us smile rather than just purley a cost cutting procedure!

Have a look at this spoof on cheap cartoons

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b5SD2UU_XYU

[Peter Gray]

That was funny with the lamps and dramatic poses.loved the joke about reversing the cell to show her from another angle..

[Peter Gray]

Heres a new one I've never seen its so bizarre

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OL0smdkYQnQ
Hillbilly bears
The Pa's mumblings are just so strange..what an odd But funny cartoon..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9bbsXD6Tvt0
I quite like the legs animation in this and the aliens are fun.another new one for me..
Squiddly Diddly